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Friday, 15 June 2018

Lewisham East - Far Right ROUTED

With all that is going on in and around the far right in the UK right now, it has been easy for some commentators to miss that they were involved in a Parliamentary by-election yesterday. The constituency of Lewisham East had to elect another representative, after Labour’s Heidi Alexander had taken up the post of Deputy Mayor for Transport at City Hall.

That Labour would win the contest was never seriously in doubt, and as the BBC has reported, “Lewisham councillor Janet Daby pledged to oppose a ‘hard Brexit’ after winning with 50.2% of the vote in the Remain-voting area of south-east London. Labour's majority was slashed from 21,213 at the general election to 5,629 as the Lib Dems overtook the Tories to claim second place. Turnout was just 33% - less than half what it was at the general election”. The Lib Dems had a revival of sorts, but did not win.

In fact, even with a majority of just over 5,600, Janet Daby secured more than 50% of the popular vote for Labour, despite the terrible turnout of just over 33%, lower than in many local Government elections. But what of the far right? Ah well. For them, this was a campaign which turned out not necessarily to their advantage.

Both new-look and even more screamingly Islamophobic UKIP, and equally screamingly Islamophobic For Britain, contested the seat. Both made suitably Ron Hopeful-like noises, with Paul Oakley of UKIP telling “Labour always have and always will let Lewisham down. Sensible voters will give themselves a shake today and back @davidkurten UKIP as the next MP”. Candidate David Kurten, who is a London AM, added “Today is the Lewisham East by-election. Vote @UKIP to reject Tory/Labour FAKE Brexit and to end politically correct policing to make our streets safe again”.

Over at For Britain, leader Anne Marie Waters was the candidate, and at first made her own optimistic noises, telling “The #LewishamEast campaign has shown that the more success we achieve, the more the feral left will attack. Please help us fund our security”, showing that her party was also skint. But then came the result.

And for Ms Waters, that meant resumption of the low moaning sound: “Janet Daby tonight spoke as if there had been no referendum, as many of them do. We've already voted and yet they still debate it. No wonder the turnout was so low, when we do vote, it's ignored anyway”. It wasn’t fair! Er, yes it was. And few were unhappy to see the back of her.

In fact, it was so bad for the far right that Kurten and Ms Waters’ votes added together were still 142 short of what Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah managed for the Greens. So perhaps it will be Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrah who gets the next Question Time berth, and not someone like Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, or indeed current head Kipper Adolf von Batten.

The far right last night discovered its true worth: two lost deposits, overtaken by the Greens, and resoundingly rejected by the electorate. Next time the Islamophobic right claims that some kind of silent majority supports it, do not lose sight of that.

Small wonder they have no problem with street protests. It’s their only route to power.

Earlier in the year, via a poster campaign in certain localities and via a Twitter account that seems to have disappeared, the Far Right announced that Jayda Fransen would contest the North West Durham parliamentary constituency against me. She became, shall we say, unavailable. So the announcement, quite baldly made, was that my opponent would be Tommy Robinson. But he, too, is now otherwise engaged.

Leaving whom? Why, Anne Marie Waters, of course. Fresh from her triumphant 266 votes at the Lewisham East by-election. This is an overwhelmingly white constituency, and a predominately working-class one. Surely she ought to sweep it?

Endorsement of the Fransen and Robinson candidacies was at least never denied by any of Britain First, the British National Party, the National Front, National Action, the Britannica Party, the British Democratic Party, Ulster Resistance, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, the Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Springbok Club, the London Swinton Circle, the Conservative Monday Club, the League of St George, the London Conference on Intelligence, the Ulster Institute for Social Research, the Mankind Quarterly, Candour, Spearhead, Redwatch, Black House Publishing, Focal Point Publications (which is David Irving’s global nerve centre of Holocaust denial), Steve Bannon, Roy Moore, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Heinz-Christian Strache, Emil Kirkegaard, or Toby Young.

Until such time as they deny it, and explain for whom, exactly, the electors of North West Durham ought to vote instead, then it stands as a matter of record that the candidacy of Anne Marie Waters at North West Durham is endorsed by each and all of Britain First, the British National Party, the National Front, National Action, the Britannica Party, the British Democratic Party, Ulster Resistance, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders, the Real Ulster Freedom Fighters, the Springbok Club, the London Swinton Circle, the Conservative Monday Club, the League of St George, the London Conference on Intelligence, the Ulster Institute for Social Research, the Mankind Quarterly, Candour, Spearhead, Redwatch, Black House Publishing, Focal Point Publications, Steve Bannon, Roy Moore, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Heinz-Christian Strache, Emil Kirkegaard, or Toby Young. To which one might, and I do, add the English Defence League and the Football Lads Alliance.

Either for Anne Marie Waters, or, therefore, for another specific candidate, I look forward to seeing them all on the stump. My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.